Introducing Endless Mode: A New Games & Anime Site from Paste
I have good news and bad news. The good news is this week’s episode of And Just Like That… is a breezy 32 minutes. The bad news is that Aidan (John Corbett) is back. “This is a nice surprise,” Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) says as they lug his bags up the stairs, and I have to disagree. It is the worst surprise.
Can we pause for a moment for me to have an existential crisis? I am a longtime Aidan girl. You should have seen how smug I was when public sentiment turned against Big a few years ago. It’s not that I thought Carrie should have chosen Aidan (they are ill-matched, and she’s a narcissist)—it’s that I would have chosen Aidan. It’s that I thought he was the sane person’s better choice.
It’s unforgivable how this show has made me hate Aidan. Was he always this horrible? Has the wisdom of age lifted the scales from my eyes? Or has AJLT morphed him into a monster that wasn’t there before? My working theory is that Aidan is the worst version of himself when in a relationship with Carrie because she makes him feel insecure. Any time he senses that she might have something outside of him, he squeezes and manipulates in the most skin-crawling ways imaginable until she’s back where he wants her. When she tries to leave for a writing session with Duncan (Jonathan Cake), he whines about Wyatt until her sympathies get her to cancel. I loathe this man.
Across town, Lisa’s (Nicole Ari Parker) crush on her editor, Marion (Mehcad Brooks), has escalated to sex dreams. She confides in Charlotte (Kristen Davis) that there’s an unspoken energy between them that scares her, and Charlotte—supportive to a fault—suggests that maybe that’s a byproduct of a creative partnership. Charlotte, I love you. May we all have friends like Charlotte.
Charlotte herself spends the episode taking care of post-surgery Harry (Evan Handler), battling her returned vertigo (okay), and serving as the uniting force for everyone to come to her gallery’s opening. Part of this opening involves a messy mattress (including a fake-jizz-filled condom) for a naked woman to lie face down on, and Carrie explains this was a profound display in the 1980s, before our Lena Dunham times. I would just like to point out that Lena Dunham’s Girls was billed ad nauseum as a millennial Sex And The City, and for this show to reference her is basically the snake eating its own tail.
Lisa tries to get things going with Herbert (Chris Jackson) by initiating morning sex, which totally baffles him. “Before coffee?!” He has to get up to pee, which kills the mood for her. Have these people never had morning sex in 20 years of marriage? Later, Lisa basically goes into a tailspin watching Marion eat melon in the most sexual way imaginable and then insists she loves her everyday kale salad (“no croutons, dressing on the side”—a tragedy) and never wants something different. He invites her to a screening to meet an executive from the Obamas’ production company, but she bails once they bump knees during the movie. I want you to have it all—but yeah, maybe it’s time for some work boundaries, Lisa. At least until you cool off a bit.
Seema (Sarita Choudhury) is finally having great sex with Carrie’s gardener Adam (Logan Marshall-Green) but is thrown when he reveals himself to be extremely crunchy—as in, he uses crystals instead of deodorant and his last name has legally been changed to Karma. “You should have told me about this crystal shit before we ever got involved,” Seema says over dinner, looking as skittish as I felt. But I don’t know, maybe just enjoy the sex for a bit. You’re not going to marry the guy.
And finally, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) continues to be a completely different person from who she was in the SATC days in that she’s quick to contort herself into whatever she thinks will please her partner. In the case of Joy (Dolly Wells), that means maybe walking back her sobriety. Never mind that Joy is totally cool with the fact that Miranda doesn’t drink—the second that she asks to keep gin in Miranda’s apartment, Miranda is wondering if she’s just “alcohol-ish,” instead of alcoholic. Maybe she could just enjoy a cocktail with friends!
Carrie and Charlotte are understandably nervous about this train of thought, but there’s no better sign that you’re legitimately an alcoholic than considering drinking your girlfriend’s special gin (a liquor you hate) while alone in your apartment. To escape the temptation, Miranda drops the bottle down the garbage chute.
This episode tries to tie everything together with the theme from Charlotte’s art exhibit—does what made you happy then make you happy now? Whether it’s alcohol or the idea of a relationship with Aidan Shaw, I think the answer is no.
Stray observations
- • Charlotte’s young co-worker while setting up the art exhibit: “I hope someone took a picture of me holding the jizz bag to send to my surgeon parents.”
- • Logan Marshall-Green’s delivery of “He’s a meanie” when Aidan tries to get his opinion on Duncan was perfect.
- • Watching Patti LuPone do whatever she wants with a Buffalo-meets-Italian accent is all I really want from this show.
